The Raven | Critical Overview
“The Raven” met with high critical acclaim upon its first appearance and subsequent publications during Poe’s life. Between 1845 and 1849 several critics called it the best American poem ever written. One overwhelmingly positive commentary by John Moncure Daniel appeared in an 1849 Richmond Examiner article a month before Poe’s death. Daniel praises the poem’s "strange, beautiful and fantastic imagery," its "grave and supernatural tone," and its "musicality" with the verses "winding convoluted about like the mazes of some complicated overture by Beethoven"; he calls...
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